Roger & Dominic News

So, we've been back for two months, and what have we learned? That we can produce a solid month's worth of strips in that space of time. Yay for us! We may not be running at the breakneck speed we once did, (I mean, we broke our necks. Who wants to do that twice?!) but we ARE still producing strips. And for that reason, we will go on hiatus. Not a long hiatus, however. We will be gone until April 27, when we will be airing the fourth chapter in the Book Eight Saga. Until that time, David and I will be creating a backlog of strips, so that it airs smoothly for, like, four days! Woo!

The reaction to the piece of Original Roger & Dominic comic artwork that was posted last time got a mildly enthusiastic response! So here's another one. The first ever appearance of Gyrlf. Please note, Specimen 583 was an invention of the webstrip. Though Gyrlf was still Dominic's offspring, her childhood was never depicted, originally. Keep also in mind, as with the last one, that these comics were created on the fly, with little effort, in 1996, at the tender age of 15. No mocking them, or my dad will beat up your dad.

February 17 was not just an arbitrary date that I pulled out of nowhere for the reboot of Roger & Dominic. It just so happens that on this day ten years ago, February 17 1996, while teenagely goofing around with friends (one of which was Roger,) I scribbled messily on a few pieces of lined paper, the very first episode of The Crazy Post-Teen Adventures of Roger & Dominic. It was a success, which led to more and more lined-paper masterpieces, me taking it more and more seriously. And though there have been extended absences over the years (much like the one we just experienced,) I have always felt compelled to return to this world and these people. To tell you the truth, saying Roger & Dominic is ten years old makes me feel a big aged myself. But I'm very proud of how far it's come. Roger & Dominic and I grew up together, and continue to grow. I couldn't be happier to share this chunk of myself with all of you, wherever the future takes us.

I told you we'd be back! You didn't believe me! Nobody believed me! But I proved you wrong! I showed you ALL! AAAHAHAHAAA!! In ten days, Roger & Dominic continues as if nothing happened. So what did happen? The short answer is burnout. It is taxing on one's creativity to write a comic strip every day. Or at least taxing when one has standards. I'm sure Brad Anderson is quite a mellow gentleman. But David and I put a lot of effort into this daily strip, and it was clear ever since we celebrated the 1000th strip that we were having trouble keeping it afloat. Between the strip, production of the calendar (which, yes, was shelved until 2007,) our careers, social lives, sleep.. it was bound to happen. But a lengthy, unplanned sabbatical does not mean Roger & Dominic is over. I promised earlier last year that Roger & Dominic would run until concluded properly, and I am a man of honour, dadgummit!

So how do we plan on doing that? Starting up again will only lead to similar problems, will it not? Well, hopefully not this time around. The plan is to take breaks in between books. Right now we're about halfway through Book Eight. Once it's complete, Roger & Dominic will take a scheduled break as David and I work on more strips for the upcoming Book Nine. If necessary, we'll also be taking week-long breaks after concluding storylines. These are both precautions we're taking in order to ensure another one of these massive hiatuses (hiati?) doesn't happen again. The idea is that if we take breaks where appropriate in order to create a small backlog of strips, we won't feel the pressure every day of having to get one finished (even though pressure and creativity go hand in hand.)

I hope not too many of you have given up on us. I realize it's inevitable, and am sure readership will be down for a while. So many webcomics, especially on Keenspace, seem to end out of disinterest. It is a fairly thankless job, unless yours is an über popular strip. But even so, there has been a small, vocal group of people who have kept at me to start up again. Lisa, Neil and Han to name a few, never gave up. And I appreciate it. It turns writing Roger & Dominic from something I do for myself, to something I do for others.

One final note before I sign off. It seems Keenspace (our host and auto-update system) changed it's name in my absence. Psag! For those of you who have this site bookmarked as roganddom.keenspace.com, you might think about changing the bookmark to either roganddom.comicgenesis.com or simply roganddom.com. You never know when Comic Genesis will stop forwarding all the Keenspace traffic here.

Today, August 6, 2005, marks our four year anniversary on the web! In this very spot four years ago, Roger slipped on some mayonnaise and we started a project we knew would last a very long time. Old friends were carried over from previous R&D incarnations, but many new characters, some of whom I could no longer see Roger & Dominic without, were invented right here before your eyes. Such characters include Punching Bag Penguin and LL Koolwip, the stars of the current storyline.

I would like to thank all of my readers. From those of you who were there on Day 1, four years ago, to those of you who have only just discovered us and are wading through the 1200+ strips in our archives, thank you all. We have had some difficulty in the last year keeping Roger & Dominic running at a steady pace, but I want to assure all of you that we will continue working, if unevenly, until we reach a satisfying conclusion.

In honour of Roger & Dominic's web birthday, we have created a new section: The Fanart Section. This is where our collection of contributions from all of you are stored and displayed. It's also a page that inspires me to work harder when I feel like putting it aside. You can find it below the logo.

Surprise! Welcome to Roger & Dominic Book Eight. In the weeks and months to come, many characters will have their moments to shine as their version of the events leading up to Gyrlf's first major victory unfold. At the end of each story, we'll zap back to the beginning and tell this tale from another character's angle. We tried this once before with Claus & Effect, our 2003 Christmas story. However this time around it's on a much larger scale, and stories are not told from a character's point of view, but rather are just told about that character. Meaning Gyrlf will not look like a babe, sorry guys.

Today we begin Punching Bag Penguin's tale. Hopefully nobody got sick of this poor little guy during Lord of the Sandwich.

Does anyone remember Roger & Dominic's first sojourn to Havelock? Anyone?? Well this is the second time we've travelled to this amazing slice of Canadiana. And not only did Roger and the Ghost of Brad Anderson go, but so did the Roger & Dominic Crew while on, you guessed it, vacation last month. You should all go. Everyone must visit Havelock. Now. Go! It's not far.*

Also, after this strip, we will FINALLY be jumping forward to a week ago. Yes, before we even get started, we have a deadline to catch up to. Does he torture himself on purpose? Yes! The almost up-to-date strips will mark the beginning of our eighth book! EIGHT BOOKS (okay, technically seven books, and the start of a new one) DUDE! My endtable is making funny noises. Seven books is a lot of paper. I could'a saved a tree.

*Note: Havelock is where your heart is. And your heart is on the leftish end of your chest. Hence, Havelock exists in your chest. Go there today!

Just thought everyone would be happy to know that our cross-province (sort of) journey in the tricked out Roger & Dominic Van (SUV) has come to an end and we're all back home safely, none of us having contracted the SARS! (Or so we believe)

Roger & Dominic strip production will now continue barring horrible catastrophic disaster (as opposoed to pleasant catastrophic disaster) and once this storyline is complete, we will be jumping ahead to the current date (what, it's not February anymore??)

And I will stop interrupting myself with idiotic comments (it's the Torontonian way!)